


Through the Eyes of a Child

by cosmicfuss



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Madi POV, Reunion Fic, basically bellarke through madi's eyes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 09:58:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13633977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicfuss/pseuds/cosmicfuss
Summary: Clarke always tells her stories. She never really expects to meet the people in them, until one day she does.





	Through the Eyes of a Child

She'd been in her village when it happened, playing with the other kids. They'd been training in evasion and tracking, an old game from times before record apparently. She had been the tracker, smiling in delight as she found yet another one of her brothers.

The boy frowned briefly, though quickly split into a wide grin as he realized he'd get to help track. He took off, giggling in delight.

She smiled, too, watching him go. He was going the wrong way, but that was alright. He'd learn.

She ignored the fact that his boils and rashes were getting worse, everyone's were. Everyone except her. She had gotten bad, too, just like the rest of her people. She was still waiting for them to get better, too.

She raced through the woods, mindful of traps, the shrieks of glee fading behind her as she searched for the next. She made it further out than she had thought, the sounds of her village fading ever quicker; that's when she saw it.

The cave.

She wandered in, smiling as she searched for any of her friends in the darkness. The cave was deeper than she could've thought, but she kept going.

Typically when she found a cave, she got colder as she continued on, but here she grew warmer. Hotter. Sweatier. Too much.

She didn't know why, but she felt like she had to go back, to see how the trackers were leveling up against the hidden. She made it to the mouth of the cave and stopped, body rigid.

Fire, fire everywhere. Devastation. Smoke. Ash.

Then silence.

The ground burned the soles of her feet but she thundered on, tears forming in her eyes. There were no moans of pain, no screams, nothing. Just silence.

There were small fires everywhere, but the wall of flame she's seen for just a moment was nowhere in sight. She hopped from foot to foot, knowing she needed to go back to the cave. She couldn't move.

" _Oso ste feva_."  _We are eternal_. That's what their saying was, the words every child of their village held in their hearts. She would see her brothers and sisters again,  _oso ste feva_.

When she got back to the cave, feet cooling on the stone, she still cried until she could've drowned in it, screamed until she could hear herself even when her voice gave out.  _Oso ste feva._

-:-

It was over two years later when she heard a twig snap behind her. She whirled, arrow pointed at the animal.

"Whoa there, it's okay!" A blonde woman, hair short, stood there with raised hands. "I won't hurt you." She put the bow down, understanding the language. She had been taught it since birth, raised to be the next chief.

She felt her heart beat for the first time since  _praimfaya_.

"Are there others, alive?" She tried not to be hopeful, relieved for it when she saw the woman shake her head.

"I've traveled a long way, you're the first person I've seen. My name is Clarke." Her smile was kind and warm, and for the first time in a long time the young girl felt her knees wobble.

"Madi."

-:-

Clarke learned quickly how to take care of Madi, how to make her feel safe. She liked to tell Madi stories, and the young girl soaked them all up with interest.

Clarke told her about, what Madi could only assume was, her life.

She told her about a people of space, the  _Skaikru_ , about the men of the mountain, about an evil virus that infected people's minds and hurt them, about one hundred- and one, Madi sometimes forgot but was always reminded of this  _one_ \- children. She told her a lot of these children.

Clarke liked to talk about a few in particular. A boy who loved his best friend, his best friend who loved a mountain girl. Apparently the boy was a part of the sky again, and his friend was with the worms.

She told of a fearless tracker, a boy who loved her. The first time she talked about his death, said she had stabbed him, she had cried. Madi never asked her to narrate that story again.

Clarke liked to talk about a girl who had loved him, she was also in the sky! She was the smartest person in the world, but she lost her leg to a very mean boy.

She was with him in space, and Madi liked to daydream about what that must be like for the two of them. Clarke told her a lot about this boy, like she always had something new- usually bad- to say about him. He was the worst when they had first arrived on earth, and Clarke had hated him more than the  _one_ , the leader.

One hundred and  _one_. Madi never included him because she liked getting Clarke started on talking about him. Bellamy. Madi loved hearing about him more than anyone.

Clarke told her about how much she had hated him with a lightness that Madi didn't see when she spoke of the others. She talked about how insufferable he'd been, how grateful she was to him, how much she missed him. It always seemed like she stopped herself from saying something, but Madi was fairly certain she knew.

Every day when the skies were clear in their Eden, Clarke sat atop a hill and talked into a metal box. She talked to Bellamy every day, telling her about her life, what she did that day and things Madi said and did and how much she looked forward to seeing them all again.

Sometimes Clarke let Madi watch her draw.

At first it was the places in Eden she loved most- the lake, the biggest tree, the small pond- and then she started drawing Madi. That's how she'd first gotten permission to look through Clarke's sketches.

There was scenery and Madi and people that Clarke didn't recognize. A lot of them were of a man with curly hair and a smattering of freckles. Madi didn't have to ask.

-:-

Once it marked five years since  _praimfaya_ , Clarke began buzzing with excitement and barely managing to contain it. Madi was eleven, old enough now and knowing Clarke well enough to see right through the "calm and collected" facade.

After a few months, that cheery hopefulness dimmed.

Madi decided that she maybe resented Bellamy for that. For disappointing Clarke like that.

She asked for stories about the Heda, about the Azgeda King, the Trikru Chief Indra, anyone that made Clarke feel happier to talk about.

When they went to check on the bunker, they saw that no one had come out of it, even four months after it was safe. They cleared the debris anyway, making it easier for when they  _did_  surface.

Clarke stuck around for a week, until their food dwindled down and they had to go back to Eden.

Madi asked for stories about people who weren't down there, about the best friend with an addiction to death and the boy who had followed her to earth, who let her hate him for something he didn't do.

Madi just wanted Clarke to be happy.

-:-

Months later, just over the six-year anniversary of  _praimfaya_ , Madi was awoken by Clarke. A ship had come down from the sky, her people had returned!

The first person Madi sees is familiar. He has long wavy hair, a large scruffy beard, and barely made it a step out of the ship before stopping.

Others came out after him, also familiar. The genius girl, the mean boy, the boy who loved his best friend. Madi tried to put the faces from Clarke's sketches and give them names from the stories. It was surprisingly easy.

Madi looks at his face, then at Clarke's. She doesn't quite know what to make of it, what conversation they're having without words. Everything is still for a second, frozen like that.

And then the dark-skinner girl with black hair- Raven, Madi knew- took off honking towards Clarke. Then the tan boy with almond eyes and short black hair- Monty. A blonde girl- Madi wasn't sure if she was Harper or Echo, but she felt like it was safe enough to assume the former. They all rushed to hold her, the other blonde excluded, taking in the smell of the ground instead.

Bellamy's steps were slower, his jaw slack and eyes wide as he walked up to her.

Clarke was crying, and for once Madi didn't feel guilty at the thought of then being sad.

The group backed off when Bellamy's feet finally carried him over, and Clarke met him after that. She gave him a smile, bright and happy and something different than the smiles she gave Madi.

"Hey, Bellamy," was all Clarke got out before his arms were around her, tears in his eyes as he squeezed her torso. There were tears in Clarke's eyes, wetting his neck as she buried her face in it.

Raven approached Madi, extending a hand for her to shake. She took it, not paying attention to what the older girl said as she continued to watch Clarke.

"It's probably best to give them a minute. I'm Raven." Her smile was kind as she finally got Madi's attention.

"I'm Madi! And I already know all your names." Raven erupted into laughter at that, a few more people approaching.

"Who'm I then?"

"Monty! You're Harper. That's Murphy and Emori, and that's Echo. And... that's Bellamy." Madi grew quiet as she turned her eyes back to the pair. They weren't hugging but they weren't apart either.

Clarke had a hand on his shoulder and one on his cheek. Bellamy had one at her waist and the other behind her neck, briefly bringing it to her face to wipe tear streaks away.

"Wow, you're good. You some kinda magician?" Raven's laughing fit returned at Madi's confused face.

-:-

It doesn't take long for the newcomers- or, Madi thinks, maybe oldcomers because technically they'd known Clarke first- to become part of daily life. With more of them, it meant more mouths to feed but also more hands to help.

Madi goes off with Bellamy to gather firewood from parts of the dead land- Clarke was adamant about never harming the little land they had left by taking from it, especially trees- when the words slip out.

They're walking through the barren brush and he's trying to get to know her better, she can tell.

"So how  _did_  you know everyone's names?" He had asked, and that's where her verbal pitfall began.

"Clarke. She told me stories about life before  _praimfaya_. I also knew a couple of your faces already from her sketches." In retrospect, Madi thinks she should've stopped it there.

"Oh? Who, uh, who did she draw?" Bellamy sounded nervous, and Madi isn't sure she gets why.

"Raven. Monty. A lot of you. It doesn't quite look like you, though." Madi shrugged, and Bellamy's brow rose.

"What did it look like then?" There's something new in his voice, and Madi thinks he's somehow making fun of her even if she can't pinpoint why.

"Dunno. Thought you'd be cuter." She kind of means it to be insulting, and she isn't sure if it works but he laughs and continues.

"Cuter, huh?" Madi shrugged again, stopping to pick up some decent wood.

"Yeah. Maybe you're just older, but you just looked cuter through her eyes." She looked back at him when he made a choking sound, and she thought that he looked a little pinker than he usually was.

He doesn't comment after that, but it just allowed Madi to think.

"Do you like Clarke?" He sputtered again, couching to grab some wood.

"Of course I like Clarke." His voice was a little louder, and Madi frowned and shook her head.

"No, you're playing dumb. I mean do you  _like_  Clarke?" His silence was itchy for her, and she'd nearly given up when he finally answered.

"It's been a long time since we've seen each other. I doubt she'd appreciate it if I push something like that on her." Madi stared at him as they walk for a few long moments. He can see his ears redden as he looks everywhere but at her.

"She told a lot of stories about you, you know." Bellamy paused, and she stopped to face him completely.

"She would talk about when the one hundred and  _one_  landed," she ignored his confused look, "and about Mount Weather. She talked about when the adults landed, messed things up a lot, about how you two had to be leaders.

"She talked about other stuff, too. When you'd offer to be on watch when you were away from camp and how she saw you staring at the sky. She said sometimes you looked like you were about to cry."

"I didn't know she-"

"And when you two first met King Roan before he was  _King_  Roan, how you showed up out of nowhere and he stabbed you. How you still didn't stop trying.

"She also talked about how, in the early morning, you two would sit right outside the gates. You would close your eyes and just breathe, and she'd stare at you and just wonder. Why your eyelashes were so long. How many freckles you had. How it was the only time you looked peaceful."

"She... She told you about all that?" Bellamy looked shocked, like the fish she and Clarke would catch in the lake. Wide eyes and gaping mouth.

"Lots more." Madi nodded her head. When she looked back on the day, she couldn't help but smile because Bellamy didn't look quite so lost after that.

-:-

Two months after the group had landed, Madi started to notice a change.

Bellamy and Clarke would do jobs together and, sure, that wasn't exactly weird but they took an about twenty minutes longer than normal. They still acted the same, which Madi was a little disappointed by.

She could tell she wasn't the only one, other members of their group- namely Raven- were growing impatient, too.

-:-

Seven months was enough for Raven, apparently. Madi saw her pull Clarke aside. She stormed away angrily after, and Madi saw her go up to Bellamy and just sit there.

Clarke was usually like that, just silently frustrated. Bellamy didn't seem to mind, just let her sit next to him in the grass and listen to the earth.

Madi thought that maybe Raven was onto something.

A week later, Madi asked Bellamy to go with Clarke instead of her. Before they left, Madi sat with Clarke and just talked. Mostly about Bellamy, how he looked at her and talked about her. Reminded her that earth was safe again.

She wasn't sure if she'd scooted their progress along, but they came back to camp an hour late and empty-handed. Raven smacked Bellamy's ass and told him to 'get some.' Clarke had just laughed and leaned her shoulder against his.

-:-

It was another few months before those in the Polis bunker emerged, and when they did there was a bit of hectic confusion on where they would all go. Their Eden was the only place Clarke knew of, but a lot of the grounders grouped up to search elsewhere for somewhere to live.

While in the bunker they'd listened to Octavia, she told them that they were free to do as they pleased so long as it didn't harm the struggling planet. War, she reminded, is harmful.

She and Indra were among the few who went to live in their Eden.

Madi smiled at the newest members of their little family. They lost Emori and Murphy and then Echo, the first two going off to search for their own life and Echo because... Madi wasn't sure she'd ever understand, the girl had never spoken to her much. Not to anyone.

Clarke and Bellamy rose as leaders again, naturally, as their numbers grew. This time around, Madi noted with a grin, they led in a way Clarke had never gotten to tell her about.

Leading with the requited love.

Madi decided it was a good look on them.

**Author's Note:**

> I put this together in basically one night because honestly I'm having a lot of emotions right now. Comment any fics you'd like to see me write!


End file.
